Far East
Asia has 43 regions and 6 bonuses. Escalating tends move the fastest as with only flat rate it can take a long time to navigate the board. Some names are hard to read due to the troop circle (Like Malaysia, S. Korea and Cambodia). Uzbekistan might be difficult to tell which territory it belongs to. The bonus names are not colored the same color as the bonus, so it is very hard to tell which bonus is what unless you know your geography. For the sake of the guide, I will list which bonus is which. *China (8) Centered bonus, blue color. *USSR (6) Bonus that covers the north of the map, red-orange color. *India (5) Southwest bonus, dark yellow color. *Siam (4) Middle of the south, green color. *Japan (3) Northeast, gray color. *Oceania (2) Southeast, light yellow color. Features *One one-way border. *Dead ends. Mod Note: This guide is considered out-of-date. It will need revisions as the map has been transformed since the guide was written. Settings Recommended *Escalating *Unlimited/Chained *2-5 Players Manual deployments In two player and three player games, each player will get a stack of 28 troops to deploy. This could give the first player a whopping advantage with the chance to take bonuses and reduce opponent troop stacks; in two player games, the 15 regions that start neutral may hinder the clash of the titan troop stacks, while in three player, the need to defend against two opponents can reduce the effectiveness of those big stacks. The chances are good, however, that on Asia map with just a few players, using the manual deployment option, the game will be decided in early rounds. In 8-player games, the manual deploy setting many help every player stay alive in one area long enough to make for a challenging game. The ten starting troops may also enable a player to take and keep an early bonus that other opponents will find difficult to break; whoever has the courage to take out a strong defense will have little left to defend against other opponents. Spoils Flat rate or no spoils Again, it would be smart to try to take the Japan and/or Oceania zones. Do not assault to less than a 3 because with the possibility of no spoils and red spoils it might prove difficult to come back. If you happen to capture one of those zones, put a lot of troops on the borders to keep so no one else tries to take it away. If you are the first person to capture a zone, defend it well and be ready to assault other's bonuses if they get one that way you will always have the upper hand. Escalating The only zone you should ever try for in an escalating game is Oceania or Japan. Do not get it all at once, because then you are likely to lose your regions on the other areas of the map and it would make it harder to eliminate a player. There are also a few dead ends - Malaysia can only be assaulted by Thailand, and Sri Lanka can only be assaulted by Mysore. Less specifically - The Oceania zone can only be assaulted by Fukien and if you own Maratha no one can get to Mysore or Sri Lanka. Blocking in any of these regions might help you in the long run because it will make someone else harder to eliminate and easier for you to eliminate that player. Most of Asia is easy to navigate, but more towards the north it is harder to get in the middle of Japan because of the 'bottlenecks' - Regions that can be assaulted by only 2 others, like Honshu only able to be assaulted by Hokkaido and Kyushu. Uzbekistan and Tadzhik can be 'bottlenecked' by owning Turkmenistan and Kazakstan. Also towards the south, all of India (Except for Afghanistan) can be bottlenecked by holding just Bengal and Pakistan. You can extend the bottleneck by assaulting Burma (from Bengal) and Turkmenistan (from Afghanistan). Iran is also needed. You could also, from Turkmenistan, assault Kazakhstan to also bottleneck Uzbekistan and Tadzhik. Nuclear An advantage to nuclear spoils is that they extend reach; a player who has insufficient troops to plow through Fukien to break into Taiwan and the Oceania bonus zone might be lucky enough to cash spoils to do the job. With nuclear spoils, building massive troop stacks for defense can be an invitation to be nuked to neutrals, so the player who uses that strategy of large builds with single troops behind the front is less effective. 1v1 Right off the get-go, you should try to capture the Japan or Oceania zones as those are the easiest to hold, Oceania more so because it has 1 border while Japan has 2. Do not try to hold China or USSR for any reason, it is too hard and will most likely fail. India and Siam are discouraged, but if you start off with most of the zone you could try to capture it. You also start off with 14 regions, making it even, because if the first player takes 2 regions from you, you still get the same deploy (barring if someone starts off with a zone). Team Games Reinforce your teammate appropriately to first try to capture the Oceania or Japan bonuses. In a doubles game, you might be able to successfully capture the Siam bonus, but it is encouraged to try for one of the other two first. China is also not encouraged. USSR is also too big and not encouraged. India is possible - but there are better options. In triples or quads games, the only zones that should be tried for are Japan or Oceania. In quadruples games, it may be difficult to even get Japan or Oceania. Even if you do reinforce your teammates the troops, attacking their ones and lowering their region count will hurt in the long run.